


Dynasty, Decapitated

by charleybradburies



Series: BuckyNat Week 2016 [1]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Black Widow (Comics), Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 1950s, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Historical, Biological Weapons, Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Returns, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Het Relationship, Canon-Typical Violence, Chance Meetings, Cold War, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Established Relationship, F/M, First Meetings, Married Couple, Military Backstory, Military Science Fiction, Mission Fic, Missions, Multi, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Natasha Romanov, Post-Series, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Power Dynamics, Pregnancy, SHIELD, Science Experiments, Spies & Secret Agents, Women In Power, Women in the Military
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:17:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6455455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <br/>
    <i>Welcome to the end of eras / Ice has melted back to life / Done my time and served my sentence / Dress me up and watch me die...<b>you just might see a ghost tonight...</b></i>
  </p>
  <p>BuckyNat Week 2016.<br/>Title and Summary from Panic! at the Disco's "Emperor's New Clothes."</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	Dynasty, Decapitated

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ready or Not | You Can't Hide](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4495704) by [charleybradburies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies). 



When Natalia reluctantly makes herself pull entirely away from James, she zips her lips and keeps them shut. Pursed, like she’s about to strike, for the entire flight, just enough to keep her escorts on edge. 

Protecting assets was _not_ her duty. Every _inch_ of her body was an asset, and this is the most infantilizing assignment she’s ever been given. Assuming SHIELD wasn’t actually capable of finding the base, all she had to do was to stay alive. As though that took effort. Ha! She can smile with an eeriness that’ll run a shiver down someone’s spine just as cold as the lethally low temperatures of her destination. They were setting her up for child’s play, and sending James off to rough somebody up.

She has however long she’s out here to decide whether it’ll be worth it to forcibly change management when she gets back to Headquarters.

And just as long to keep from letting this mission be an execution by boredom.

+

Daniel taps the edge of Peggy’s - his - their? - desk as the scout on the phone hesitates before responding to him.

“Single female. HYDRA insignia on her uniform and I’m pretty sure her treatment of the punching bag has a chance of giving Madame Director a run for her -”

“Not the question, Stafford. How many do you need?”

“Well, sir, it _is_ just her. Maybe three more agents. Couple scientists, too, since there’s gotta be something else here.”

“Thank you, Agent. Lay low now. Backup should be there in a day or two.”

“Thank you, Interim Director, sir. We’ll keep this as quiet as we can, try not to spook anyone.”

Daniel chuckles. _Oh, good grief._

“Agent, they’re spies. They’re already spooks,” he finishes, smirking only to himself as he hangs up the call - just in time to see Jack pretending to knock on the door, waiting for Daniel to notice him. Daniel calls him in with an eyeroll and another soft laugh.

“So, how many asses are we gonna freeze?”

“Executive decision would say roughly ten. But, your pick, so plus or minus an agent if you’re really set on something.”

“Ten? What do they got out there?”

“If I’m right, a widow.”

“A wi- _oh_ , so it’s… _just_...her, then? How am I gonna sell that?”

“You’re their commanding officer, Jack. Do you have to?”

Jack shrugs noncommittally. 

“Peggy still have that bourbon at the lockers?”

Daniel scoffs, but tosses him the keys.

“I’m holding you accountable for replacing it when you get back.”

“Yes, sir, Mister Director Carter, sir.”

“ _Interim_ Director.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack waves him off, and saunters out of Peggy’s - _Daniel’s_ \- office. 

As if on cue, the phone rings yet again - this time, the one person he’s legitimately excited to hear from, even though their calls this first week of Peggy’s maternity leave have focused on her frustrations. 

“Darling, how much longer til you get home tonight?”

+

She’s not dead yet, but there are days she feels pretty close. Really, the only things to do other than sitting around with a gun in her hand are punching a bag and running. Nat had smuggled in a few books, but she devours them quickly, left to try to write a letter to James - not that it’ll get to him, she knows, but it helps to feel like they’re actually together even when they can’t be.

Still, she doesn’t have much to tell him about. Most of what’s out here is snow and her. If she’d been told what the asset was that she was protecting, maybe she’d be more interested, but it had been decided that almost no one had clearance that high. All she knew was that it was a biological weapon, and not another detail had she coaxed through someone's lips...which was poor planning on HYDRA’s part, given that she’s perfectly capable of choosing to serve some other organization, a situation in which they’d be endangered having someone who could pull a grudge out of their unmentionables just because she felt like it. 

Then again she was dangerous no matter where she was; James has pointed it out enough times that she hears it in his voice, rasping warmly next to her ear with phantom hands atop her hips. One metal, one flesh, both human, both _him_ , and both _hers_.

+

She’s bored enough by the third month that she starts dancing again - not just her ballet but the women’s pieces of the Western dances that James knew, almost like she's naive enough to feel his body against hers while she moves. 


End file.
